Paul Edward Reese

Paul Edward Reese died peacefully in the arms of his wife Anna on April 17, 2018, following a four-year engagement with cancer.

Paul was the first of twin boys born on January 13, 1953, in Newport News, Virginia, to James and Jean Reese, an aerospace engineer and registered nurse. The twins had an older sister, Nanci, and later a younger brother, Steve. Paul grew up in the 1950s and ’60s suburbia of America as the family followed aviation and space industry opportunities in Virginia, Georgia and California. In his pre-teen years Paul traded his toy trucks for a guitar, and music became a lifelong passion. The family always went to church and Paul naturally absorbed his Christian upbringing. As a young man, he was greatly influenced by the Jesus movement. After high school, Paul enlisted in the Army, where he trained as an X-ray tech. After the Army, Paul followed a friend to Kake, a small remote community in southeast Alaska. There he married and raised three children: Esther, Rachel and Jesse. Through the years in Kake he worked a variety jobs, most notably as one of Kake’s community health care providers. This meant manning the town’s clinic with only remote support of a doctor and far from any medical facility. At the same time, he provided the town with both church and rock music, playing any instrument that was needed but with a preference for the guitar. He was elected mayor of Kake for two consecutive terms.

In his early 30s, Paul came across a reprint of an early manuscript of the New Testament written in Koine Greek in a book store in Sitka. He brought it home to Kake along with a Greek dictionary and the determination to truly penetrate this sacred text in its most original form available. The Greek came to Paul with ease. For the rest of his life Paul read his Greek gospel daily with an intuitive and ever deepening understanding of Jesus’s teachings. This was accompanied by the commitment to live what he read. What emerged was the beautiful soul Paul radiated and which we came to know.

After launching his children successfully into adulthood, Paul divorced and migrated to Sandpoint, Idaho, in 2007. Making a full career circle, Paul worked at Bonner General Hospital as a radiology technician until his early retirement in December 2017. While in Sandpoint, Paul’s interest in music veered from classical acoustic guitar into playing bass in multiple rock bands, while also transposing classical music for the ukulele. Paul’s life in Sandpoint was characterized by joyful diligence in all he did — work, music and friendships. It was also a time of remarkable spiritual realizations.

Paul met Anna Nystrom in 2011. Each unique but complimentary, the two intertwined their lives like a rope with the third and common strand being spirituality. Paul was a gourmet cook, an endless well of spiritual wisdom, and overall cheerful company. Anna tended to the practicalities of life and initiated adventures which Paul engaged in with both enthusiasm and a smidge of hesitation: motorcycle riding, sailing, flying, and travel to Anna’s family in Sweden and other places.

Paul’s mother counseled him on her deathbed to “live well.” If living well is manifesting the fruits of the spirit of love, kindness, joy, gentleness, goodness and peace, Paul truly lived well. Paul’s ever-present smile and passion for manifesting the love of Christ are gifts firmly anchored in our hearts.

Paul is survived by his wife, Anna; his three siblings, Nanci, James and Steven, all in California; three children, Esther (Ashton), Rachel and Jesse, all in Alaska, and four grandchildren. A memorial service will be held on Sunday May 6, 2018, at 3 p.m. at the Heartwood Center in Sandpoint, Idaho. All are welcome.